Unlike for scientific names, governed by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature there are no real generally accepted governing authorities for vernacular names of animals.

For some groups (such as birds) there are a small number of generally agreed lists of names, but even these vary with for instance "Jackdaw" being the British list name and "Eurasian Jackdaw" the international (American?) name.

For insects it seems to be a convention. For things like butterflies which are well known and popular, although even there variation exists (the name Red Admiral can, I understood, be attached to Small Tortoiseshell in Scotland).

For more obscure things (and in insects that is pretty much everything else) it is really up to an author, if their suggestions prove popular then they get used and become the 'standard'.

I think in Dragonflies Dijkstra was trying to achieve a list that would use consistent naming conventions in Britain and the USA (hence bluet rather than blue damselfly). Whether it will be successful I don't know.

Seems as though Common Names get voted in by commoners, then, just by usage.

I was visiting France recently with an friend who does dragonfly trips and, upon spotting a Hawker flying around, he exclaimed, "it's a Blue-eyed Hawker"! I remained silent but thought, "looks like a Southern Migrant" to me. Doh - same thing!